Page 229 of Black Reign

With Vesper.

With Sabine.

With the ghost and the woman.

She spent years making herself impossible to catch.

Turns out she caught me first.

And I'm beginning to understand the truly dangerous part.

I don't want to get free.

10

His hand never leaves mine.

Not in the car.

Not when we pull beneath an unmarked building in Mayfair that looks elegant enough from the street and turns into something entirely different the moment the garage doors close behind us.

Men appear.

Doors unlock.

Another closes behind the car before the next opens.

Nobody asks me a question.

Nobody even looks at me for too long.

Xavier gets out first, circles the car himself, then opens my door.

His coat is still wrapped around my shoulders.

When I step out, his hand finds mine again.

Firm.

Warm.

Certain.

As if somewhere between a warehouse and here, this has become the natural position for us.

My fingers tucked into Xavier Blackwell's.

I stare at them for half a second.

His hand is larger than I imagined.

That is a ridiculous thing to notice after being kidnapped.

I notice anyway.

“Sabine?”

I look up.